QLD Bill Amendments elevating the resources industry from high-risk to high-reliability
At Forwood, our mission is to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries in high-risk industries through our critical risk management solutions. So when the Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (the Bill) for Queensland recently passed, we were pleased to see the dedicated focus to improve critical controls within the industry – amongst other key changes too.
In our experience, when high-risk organisations dedicate their focus to critical controls and clear critical control verification methods, it’s the difference between life and death – and the difference between operating as a high-risk or high-reliability organisation. Some successes we’ve seen with our partners dedicated to critical control management include:
- Zero workplace fatalities since 2019 for the second biggest miner in the world, with approximately 85,000 employees and contractors across six continents.
- 10 million fatality free shifts for a South African miner.
- Eight years fatality free for a Tier 1 Australian miner thanks to industry-leading, life-saving verifications.
A key focus within the Bill is to facilitate growth in high-reliability organisational (HRO) behaviours within the resources sector.
In contrast to the term “high-risk organisation”, “high-reliability organisation” is a term initiated by researchers from UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan in the 1980s and 1990s.
It speaks to a body of research focusing on organisations that were extremely complex in nature but achieved great success in avoiding disaster – and the behavioural principles these researchers identified as common in such organisations.
So, what behaviours can bring an organisation’s critical control management up to scratch?
- Ensure safety leaders feel comfortable and confident with your critical control management program.
- Ensure all risks and controls have been identified and agreed as “critical” to prevent serious injury or death.
- Ensure critical controls consider previous events which resulted in serious injury or death.
- Develop questions to adequately verify that controls are in place and effective.
- Ensure clarity and simplicity of verification questions to ensure they’re aligned to each role of Manager, Supervisor and Operator.
- Provide workers with adequate and functional digital tools to capture verification outcomes and evidence.
- Ensure your system can deliver real-time reports to understand your areas and levels of risk.
Beyond critical controls, the amendment also includes modernising regulatory enforcement powers, more contemporary legislation, and enhancing the operation and administration of legislation through a range of minor operational amendments.
This means it’s vital for organisations to not only have a razor-sharp focus on their critical controls program but also in implementing a robust risk management system that can foresee, predict and analyse potential risk. This will make meeting new operational and administrative requirements seamless, and ensure your people, leaders and the organisation are always protected.
Through industry-shifting change, it’s crucial for leaders to feel confident in their compliance and critical control management, with assurance that your systems and processes are highly effective in preventing and reducing fatalities and serious incidents.
If any leaders are in doubt about their organisation’s critical risk management capabilities – Forwood can support you through this transition. Our industry-leading solutions give leaders a clear oversight of all potential risks and the best possible controls to protect their people and the planet.
